Japanese

New Asian Currents

Entries in Total: 943 Films out of 68 Countries and Areas

October 11–15   [Venues] F3 F5 Forum 3, 5

We give you this year’s New Asian Currents program—twenty-one gems in the rough that boldly carve out new ways of expression, in addition to two Special Invitation Films, inviting you to worlds captured and imagined by the filmmakers.


New Asian Currents Special Invitation Films

Jurors:
Yang Lina (CHINA)
Erikawa Ken (JAPAN / Editor)

        A        

- Anatolian Trip
TURKEY / 2018 / 114 min
Directors: Deniz Tortum, Can Eskinazi

The year is 2014, just before the presidential election, and a young jam band embarks on a road trip, leaving Istanbul to tour around Anatolia—travelling in the improvisatory spirit of their music, rolling from one local encounter to the next.

Oct. 12 19:0019:50 F5 (Changed) | Oct. 14 13:40 F3 | Oct. 15 17:50 F5 (Rescheduled)



        B        

- And What Is the Summer Saying
INDIA / 2018 / 23 min
Director: Payal Kapadia

A man enters the forest to collect some honey. The wind whispers through the trees, swaying the hammocks in the village. Listen closely and you will hear the women’s hearts murmur about lost love.



- That Cloud Never Left
INDIA / 2019 / 65 min
Director: Yashaswini Raghunandan

A story about a village not very far away—children search for a red ruby, and toys are made out of filmstrips. Out of a phantasmagoria of village, children and stars, a film soon emerges.

Oct. 12 14:00 F5 | Oct. 14 19:40 F3



        C        

- The Ashes and Ghosts of Tayug 1931
THE PHILIPPINES / 2017 / 115 min
Directors: Christopher Gozum

Pedro Calosa led an agrarian uprising as a young man. Speaking through a cross section of silent film, fiction and documentary, this film brings forth the spiritual journey of Calosa, a forgotten hero.

Oct. 12 19:30 F3 | Oct. 13 21:40 F5 (Rescheduled) | Oct. 14 11:30 F5



        D        

- At Home Walking
INDIA / 2019 / 114 min
Director: Rajula Shah

Poetic monologues and the music of wandering bards accompany the pilgrims and nomads of modern-day India. This experimental work challenges us to visualize a journey of the soul, with walking as a meditative act.

Oct. 11 13:40 F3 | Oct. 13 16:10 F5



        E        

- Erased,___Ascent of the Invisible
LEBANON / 2018 / 76 min
Director: Ghassan Halwani

The lingering image of a man kidnapped 35 years ago. The film hunts down and carves into the present the absence of countless existences that were vanished without a trace, written off as anonymous deaths after the civil war.

Oct. 12 17:10 F3 | Oct. 14 14:40 F5



        F        

- Exodus
IRAN / 2019 / 80 min
Director: Bahman Kiarostami

Migrant workers from Afghanistan who entered the country illegally now wish to go back home, and they make their case at the government center near the border. The stories of people with different family and work circumstances are interwoven in this Exodus—from Iran—with a reggae lilt.

Oct. 11 19:20 F3 | Oct. 13 11:00 F5



        G        

- A Feeling Greater Than Love
LEBANON / 2017 / 93 min
Director: Mary Jirmanus Saba

The labor and political movement led by factory workers in 1970s Lebanon has been overshadowed by the region’s history. Through testimonials of those enactors of social change and a variety of footage from the era that encompasses both fiction and documentary, the film reclaims and breathes new life into the people’s revolution.

Oct. 11 11:00 F3 | Oct. 13 13:30 F5



        H        

- In Thy Kingdom by the Sea
POLAND, JAPAN / 2018 / 23 min
Director: Keino Yutaro

To the port by train, plane, and car. Sketches of the diverse lives of those tied to the sea: fishermen, sailors, men of different countries here for work, men from the Navy, and students . . . .



- Gracefully
IRAN / 2019 / 64 min
Director: Arash Eshaghi

An 80-year-old man, known in his youth for having danced at local ceremonies and celebrations dressed as a woman. Dancing publicly is banned after the revolution and he lives now as a farmer, taking care of cows. This film captures one man’s continued pursuit of happiness through dancing.

Oct. 11 14:30 F5 | Oct. 12 11:30 F3



        I        

- Invisible Actors
KOREA / 2018 / 122 min
Director: Chae Hyeong-sik

Four actors rehearse playing zombies for a film audition. Encompasses documentary theatre, the actors’ discussion process and their everyday lives—all at the same time they attempt to make a film with the director.

Oct. 11 17:20 F5 | Oct. 13 19:30 F3



        J        

- No Data Plan
THE PHILIPPINES, USA / 2018 / 70 min
Director: Miko Revereza

“Mama has two phone numbers.” A journey of film in the space it takes a train to leave Los Angeles and head to New York. The latest work from the director of Droga! and Disintegration 93–96 (YIDFF 2017).

Oct. 14 17:00 F5 | Oct. 15 11:30 F3



        K        

- Temporary
TAIWAN / 2017 / 25 min
Director: Hsu Hui-ju

In the ruins of an abandoned factory, three temporary workers—a young man, an older man and an older woman—behave like a choreographed family, as they clean up, construct a table, and eat together. The latest film from the director of Hard Good Life (YIDFF 2003).



- Cenote
JAPAN, MEXICO / 2019 / 75 min
Director: Oda Kaori

Cenotes—sources of water that in ancient Mayan civilization were said to connect the real world and the afterlife. The past and present of the people living in and around them intersect, and distant memories echo throughout immersive scenes of light and darkness. The latest film from the director of Aragane (YIDFF 2015).

Oct. 12 11:00 F5 | Oct. 14 16:40 F3



        L        

- This Is My Home, Come the Sleeping
INDONESIA / 2019 / 81 min
Director: Halaman Papua

A man works out every day what numbers to bet on the lottery. In the midst of his seemingly peaceful life, Papua’s history and memories of the tragedy that plagued his home village linger hazily on.

Oct. 11 20:20 F5 | Oct. 13 17:10 F3



        M        

- Through the Border
SINGAPORE / 2018 / 29 min
Director: Teo Qi Yu

After his cancer diagnosis, an old man is given six months to live. His granddaughter’s camera gently captures his sense of belonging in China—the place he left behind but never forgot—and the story of his family in Singapore.



- Beyond the Salween River
BURMA, VIETNAM, THAILAND / 2019 / 65 min
Director: Gigi Berardi

Forging paths in areas of the country where there were none before, a locally-led team provides healthcare to ethnic minority groups without access to medical care who have been isolated by the country’s long political conflict. With their newfound medical knowledge, some newly-trained young villagers will soon depart on a journey of their own.

Oct. 11 11:30 F5 | Oct. 13 14:10 F3



        N        

- The Wandering Rock
CHINA / 2019 / 93 min
Director: Cui Zhaosong

Gunmaker, an indie rock singer, whose musical partner died a year ago. He throws his whole being into touring, howling for freedom in a contemporary society rife with contradictions—all the while under surveillance by the authorities.

Oct. 11 16:40 F3 | Oct. 13 19:10 F5



        O        

- Winter in Seoul
KOREA / 2018 / 25 min
Director: Sohn Koo-yong

A young man writes in a motel room at night, while people go about their business outside in the cold winter streets of Seoul, anonymously crossing paths. A venture to visually interpret the sense of the words of the short story “Seoul—1964—Winter,” through an experiment in the five senses.



- Hut
TAIWAN / 2018 / 54 min
Director: So Yo Hen

One by one, Indonesian laborers flee to a hut somewhere in Taiwan and begin talking about what has happened to them. Their voices crowd the hut, until an explosion seems imminent . . . .

Oct. 12 14:30 F3 | Oct. 14 20:10 F5



        P        

- Xalko
CANADA / 2018 / 100 min
Directors: Sami Mermer, Hind Benchekroun

The men of the director’s hometown, a Kurdish village called Xalko, are off making a living in Europe. Within the daily lives of the women left back home, as they chat and their hands work busily, brim the joys and anger, grief and laughter of one large “family.”

Oct. 12 16:50 F5 | Oct. 14 11:00 F3




New Asian Currents Special Invitation Films

- Self-Portrait: Sphinx in 47 KM
CHINA / 2017 / 94 min
Director: Zhang Mengqi

An old woman speaking falteringly about the sadness of her life; a young girl drawing pictures—a touching portrayal of the intimate flow of time in a quiet village. This was made prior to Self-Portrait: Window in 47 KM (YIDFF2019 International Competition), also set in the same village.

Oct. 13 11:30 F3 | Oct. 15 13:00 F5



- Boys for Beauty
TAIWAN / 1998 / 63 min
Director: Mickey Chen

Full of laughter and sadness, this film depicts the societal interaction and inner struggles of gay teenagers in Taiwan. In memory of director Mickey Chen, who last came to Yamagata in 2011 as a New Asian Currents juror.

Oct. 15 11:00 F5